Maersk has so far transported over 6,000 oxygen concentrators, 500 oxygen cylinders, 60 cryogenic oxygen tanks and several medical supplies and ventilators into India to support the country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company has offered its ocean transportation service to institutions and organisations participating in medical relief at a nominal rate of 1 USD per container, according to a statement.
Besides, all air freight shipments to India facilitated by Maersk are being done on a zero-profit basis, it said.
The logistics activities undertaken by Maersk involved facilitating shipments coming in from a host of countries such as Ireland, Finland, China, Germany, UAE, Qatar, Israel, South Africa and Singapore, the company said.
More shipments from China, Turkey and Dammam are still in progress, Maersk added.
Maersk South Asia Managing Director Vikash Agarwal said, ‘The crisis has urged us all to go beyond our business and support the society when it needs it the most.’ He added that 15 of the company’s top executives from different functions voluntarily got together in the early days of the second wave and put together ‘Project Oxygen War Room’, to help society fight the virus.
Agarwal said ‘The team went far beyond their day-to-day jobs to create a platform for buyers to meet sellers and implemented logistics for the medical aid coming into India.’
The country’s medical infrastructure came under heavy pressure during the second wave with an acute shortage of oxygen supply in hospitals. This led almost all the industrial oxygen manufacturing in the country to be diverted for medical purposes.
However, the challenge of transporting the oxygen to medical facilities posed an even bigger roadblock due to a lack of cryogenic oxygen tanks that are required for transporting the medical oxygen, said Maersk.
According to Business World report, currently , Maersk stepped in and through its network connected the sellers of such tanks and oxygen concentrators from around the world to the organizations that were willing to lease or buy them in India, it added.
This article originally appeared on ScandAsia